The Leitmotif Project

In August ‘23, a group of 15 women in the age group 40+ explored something called “The LeitMotif Project” as part of a library cum reading program called “Imagine Your Stories”, a program offered by Just B - The Library is Open, a Mumbai based library.

The idea for the project was inspired by a book that was the book club selection for the program titled Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce. This book set in post World War II London, is a story of two women who strike an extraordinary friendship and travel halfway across the world to New Caledonia to find a rare species of a golden beetle. While the book has several talking points for discussion, which is one of the main reasons it was selected for the reading program, it is the afterword by the author that helped inspire the idea of the LeitMotif Project.

Titled “The photograph that inspired a novel”, in which the author Rachel Joyce shared the story behind the book, she described an image of two women that “followed” her for several years. She wrote, “After my father died, I had a phone call with a clairvoyant. I was deep in grief and I wanted to be given some reason to believe my father was still present, and still loving me. At one point she said, “What about the two women?” I said, “What two women?” She said, “I see two women.”

Joyce goes on to describe how a recurring image of two women continued to manifest in various forms throughout her life - from the clairvoyant, to two of her aunts, to a home she moved to which was owned by two women in the 1920s, to feeling the presence of two women in an empty room, all spanning over a few years. Finally, during a visit to a manor with a friend, she saw a small black and white photograph of two women. She wrote, “The hairs stood on my neck. I felt a kind of rushing of blood and a simultaneous plummeting, as if my feet had missed a step. It was them. It was the two women. I absolutely knew it.”

Rachel Joyce ultimately went on to write Miss Benson’s Beetle based on a recurring theme of two women at various points in her life.

Reading the afterword of the book had a profound impact on me and got me to wonder, don’t we all have something like this in our lives? Finding it extremely hard to articulate what “this” actually is, I stumbled upon a term that is commonly used in music called leitmotif, meaning a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation. I decided to “borrow” the term and embark on a project with the group of women in my program and call it “The LeitMotif Project.”

As part of this project, each member of the group was invited to think about a recurring image (used as a generic term, but can be applied to anything from art to music or any media form). The intention behind the project was to give us a chance to think, observe, identify and reflect on our “LeitMotifs”. I was pretty confident that we each do have one, but we don’t have the time or mindspace to think about something like this. And once we can identify what our leitmotif is, like Rachel Joyce, can we create art from it and share it?

One can say this is mumbo-jumbo, or something that belongs in an alternate universe, but the outcome of this project was fascinating and definitely worth sharing.

The diversity of leitmotifs that emerged from the group were nothing short of amazing. Feathers, the number 11, characters from books, libraries, and a dance video were just a few of the motifs that emerged from the project.

Bageshree Shroff, Founder/Interior Designer, 42, found that her leitmotif is a video from Step Up and Dance Revolution. In this video, there are paintings and sculptures that come to life through a clever dance routine. She said “I keep going back to this video whenever I am stuck in a rut or need cheering up, and through the project I analysed and understood why I keep going back to it.”

“The first thing that I thought of related to leitmotifs was that everywhere I go, people tell me that I have a familiar face”, said Laylla Mehta, Chartered Accountant, 46.

“I have also always been fascinated by guardian angels and feathers.” She added, “Signs can be rainbows or feathers so please start looking for yours.”

Reha Mitra, Barrister-at-law, 39, “The leitmotif project was really a soul searing project. A eureka moment when it all clicked into place…suddenly seeing the patterns in your own life whether pre-ordained by fate or fashioned from your choices - life suddenly had a theme song! Not just that as a group the process of discovering our own leitmotifs created an intense bond, built empathy for a journey lived differently.”

“The leitmotif project made me realise that there was a character in a book whose approach to life I’ve unconsciously echoed”, shared Anomita Guha, Writer, 44. “I’ve learned through the world how to perform the roles of a woman, a wife and a mother - but I’ve learned through my anti-heroine to make choices that often completely subvert those expectations and allow me to do what I do best - i.e. be myself without apology.”

Listening to the members’ share their leitmotifs really inspired me to think hard about my own and I allowed myself to switch roles between facilitator and participant.

I discovered that my leitmotif is sharing stories and I realised that there were several instances in my life that have led me to realise this and actually apply this recurring theme to my work as a Library Educator. I found I had kept a card from a boutique bookstore called Book Munch during a visit to Dubai several years ago, I didn’t throw away the card thinking “what if” I could do something like this someday. After finishing a good book, the thought that would often cross my mind, “I love words so much, maybe I can become an English teacher….”. When my daughter was in nursery I volunteered to go and read a story to the children called “Little Cloud” by Eric Carle. With each page they giggled and I got goosebumps. A few years later while working at my last job, I participated in a workshop on books and reading. I volunteered to read a book to my group called “The Rabbit Listened” by Cori Doerrfeld. It was a very emotional experience for me, I burst into tears once I finished reading the book. After the workshop, I found out where I could learn how to be a professional storyteller and work in the library space. This was my “a-ha” moment.

What the leitmotif project did for the group, and for me, was to enable us to make connections and join the dots. What appeared to be unrelated experiences, distinct incidents and impulsive emotions, were actually always part of a whole, we just couldn’t see it that way. Thinking about my leitmotifs has led me to think about my life choices and has literally altered the course of my life.

My hope from sharing this is for the reader to get inspired to try and look for their leitmotif/s as well, and understand that there is a small bridge that needs to be crossed to find what your soul needs, you just have to look for the signs.